The Grand Canyon Trust’s Native America Program

Grand Canyon Trust Mission:

The mission of the Grand Canyon Trust is to protect and restore the Colorado Plateau — its spectacular landscapes, flowing rivers, clean air, diversity of plants and animals, and areas of beauty and solitude.

Grand Canyon Trust Vision:

We work toward creating a region where generations of people and all of nature can thrive in harmony. Our vision for the Colorado Plateau 100 years from now has three key facets:

The region is still characterized by vast open spaces with restored, healthy natural areas and habitat for all native plants and animals.

Human communities enjoy a sustaining relationship with the natural environment.

People who live and visit here are willing, enthusiastic stewards of the region’s natural resources and beauty.

The Grand Canyon Trust’s Native America Program

The Grand Canyon Trust supports tribal communities in their efforts to protect natural and cultural resources. Through the Intertribal Gatherings process, we bring together tribal leaders from across the plateau to discuss priorities shared between tribes and to begin implementing conservation strategies related to those priorities. So far, gathering participants have identified four critical areas of interest: protection of sacred places, protection of sacred water, preservation of language and culture, and revitalization of health through traditional farming. For each goal, gathering participants have created tangible, tribally-led solutions and begun to implement them. In addition, the Trust is helping tribal communities create economic development plans and projects that diversify economies, shifting dependence away from geriatric and polluting coal mines and power plants.